- An international hunt is on to find a flying bomb a stolen
Boeing 727 which led to British Airways cancelling all flights to Saudi
Arabia last week.
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- The plane is a fuel tanker that MI6 and other spy agencies
fear is in the hands of al-Qaeda.
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- The search is being coordinated by Richard Dearlove,
director of MI6, and George Tenet, the CIA chief. Both President Bush and
Tony Blair, on holiday in Barbados, are being kept updated on the search
one of the most difficult in aviation history.
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- Hidden somewhere in the vast Sahara desert of East Africa
an area the size of Europe the spy chiefs believe the Boeing was poised
to launch its attack on a British airliner as it began its descent over
Saudi Arabia into Riyadh airport.
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- Suspected al-Qaeda terrorists spotted outside the airport
last week are now believed to have been using sophisticated electronic
equipment to track British airways flights.
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- They escaped before Saudi police could arrest them.
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- The international agencies involved in the hunt for the
Boeing are MI6, Mossad, the CIA and NSA, America's spy in the sky. All
have confirmed the feasibility of the flying bomb destroying a British
Airways commercial plane.
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- The attack would require no more than two pilots.
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- "Al-Qaeda have a number of such pilots who were
trained in Iran. We have been hunting them for some time in Africa, said
a Mossad source."
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- The area where the Boeing is believed hidden has little
or no radar cover making it almost impossible to track as it took off on
its deadly mission.
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- "We are certain that the flying bomb will have been
re-sprayed in the colours of one of the small airlines operating in central
Africa," an intelligence officer involved in the hunt said. "That
makes it even harder to spot as there are a lot of old 727s flying in Africa,
bought cheap from major airlines."
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- The Boeing's own navigation system would enable it to
intercept a British Airways flight as it descended into Riyadh airport.
"The crew would be relaxing after their long flight being almost over.
They would not be looking out for an attack coming across the Red Sea from
Africa. At a closing speed of almost 900 miles, they would have no chance
to avoid the flying bomb, said international security expert Ted Gunderson
in Washington.
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- The Boeing fuel tanker can carry twice the amount of
jet fuel which caused the fireballs that toppled the World Trade Centre
in New York. America's Homeland Security Agency which coordinates all intelligence
for President Bush sent out an urgent warning that al-Qaeda "has a
continuing fixation to use a large plane to launch a spectacular to mark
the second anniversary of 9/11."
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- Christopher Yates, a security analyst with Jane's Aviation
Service in London said: "it doesn't take a genius to figure out if
you filled up the Boeing tanker to capacity you would have a huge bomb."
It was that threat which led to MI6 sending a "red alert to British
Airways. America's National Security Agency (NSA) has moved one of its
satellites in the Middle East to begin to quarter the Sahara. Intelligence
officers have been authorised to pay substantial sums to nomadic Arabs
who roam the Sahara for any clues as to where the Boeing is hidden.
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- The last sighting was made two months ago by a Canadian
pilot, Robert Strothers.
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- Taking off from Comakry, the seaport capital of Gunea,
he claimed he saw the Boeing parked inside a hanger.
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- "It had been re-sprayed. But the old registration
was still visible," Strothers has told MI6.
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- By the time an MI6 officer from adjoining Sierra Leone
had arrived in Guinea, the 727 had gone. It was next reported to have landed
at Ndjamrna, an airport in Chad. The country adjoins Sudan. The Sudanese
deny the aircraft entered their air space and hinted it had flown north
to the Middle East.
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- Last week, the State Department in Washington which has
asked all its diplomats in the region to "mobilise their resources"
said that "finding the plane is now a top priority."
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- Another urgent concern is to discover the fate of Ben
Padilla, the 51 year old American "bush pilot" who was at the
controls of the 727 when it suddenly took off from Luanda airport in Angola
on May 25. That afternoon, a still unidentified man had paid for 14,000
gallons of jet fuel with US dollars.
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- Shortly before 5pm, Padilla climbed on board with the
man. He was later described as "Middle Eastern."
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- Padilla had been at the airport for some weeks. He claimed
he represented a Miami company called Aerospace and Leasing, ASL. The company
later denied he was working for them. The Luanda airport manager, Helder
Preza, said the Boeing had ran up £30,000 of charges while being
parked at the airport after being sold on by American Airlines to ASL.
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- Padilla guaranteed payment on ASL notepaper. He was then
allowed to carry out essential aircraft maintenance to fly the plane back
to Miami.
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- On that May afternoon, he announced to Luanda Air Traffic
Control he was going to do engine tests. He fired-up all three engines
and rolled the 727 out to the runway.
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- Suddenly, remembers Helder, "the plane took off.
Padilla and the mystery man were on board. The radio was turned off. The
transponder, which would have allowed radar to track the plane, was turned
off. In minutes it was gone."
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- Padilla's brother, Joe, who lives in Pensacola, Florida,
believes his brother was "forced to fly some place and is now dead."
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- Comment
- From Edward O'Finnegan
- 9-13-3
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- Does anybody believe that this 727 isn't carrying tracking
devices? I'd expect them to have several - at least one of them a 'secure'
high-tech device and still functioning, by satellite or overfly. Are they
playing games?
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